Why Digital Leadership?

The scope and speed of digital trends are outpacing organisations ability to benefit from them. The challenge is not technical but organisational and not unique to non-profits as this excerpt from the leaked New York Times internal digital review illustrates:

￼“We have struggled to groom our digital journalists for leadership, in part because we don’t fully know how to use their skills. “

“It’s critically important to have traditional journalists involved in crafting and implementing our digital strategy. But having so many of these [digital leadership] posts filled by traditional journalists deprives us of deep expertise to push our digital efforts to the next level.”

On the one hand Digital Leads feel that management "doesn't get it" or they feel that colleagues see them as service providers rather than strategists and experts in their own right.

On the other hand, Digital Leads often don't have the skills to develop trusting relationships with higher levels in an organisation. Sometimes approaching a Digital team is like talking to the proverbial plumber – the moment someone outlines their idea, the team will outline the complexity of the work which – as with our plumber – will result in a high cost and a long delivery timeline. So no wonder that some colleagues and senior management do not want to consult the Digital team in the first place.

What is the Digital Leadership Forum?

The Digital Leadership Forum is a full day personal development workshop aiming to help bridge the gap in understanding between Digital Leaders and other Managers in organisations.

In this full day workshop participants will have the opportunity to share their experiences and find solutions and possible ways of working in the future.

If you've had a mentor or a coach, you will know what this day will feel like. While many of us haven't got much time to think about how we operate in the workplace beyond pure delivery, when we allow ourselves to do it, we learn a lot about self and how others perceive us. And this is an important learning when thinking about how we build trust and maintain relationship with colleagues.

The day will be facilitated by Brani with the support of a leadership mentor and coach using open space methodology for discussions and exercises which will provide Digital Leads with tools to help them develop their leadership and influencing skills.

Who is it for?

If you've been to DLF 2014, this year's forum will be building on those discussions and your experience since.

Digital Leadership Forum is an opportunity for Digital Leads (a person in an organisation who leads on Digital, therefore can be at any level in an organisational hierarchy), managers and colleagues who are working closely with them or the Digital team to come together and build deeper understanding of each other's professional motivations so they can build better working relationships.

Participants will have the opportunity to share their experiences and find solutions and possible ways of working in the future. If you've had a mentor or a coach, you will know what this day will feel like. This is organised by digital leads for digital leads.

This is the year 3 of Digital Leadership Forum so it is still new to the ECF community. If you have any questions/thoughts/feedback, please don't hesitate to get in touch with Duane or Brani.

Branislava Milosevic (former Save the Children and CAFOD Digital Manager) has been spending the last few years working with senior managers and digital managers to develop their capabilities to work together, to seize digital opportunities and to help NGOs spread digital best practices throughout the organisation.